This means Google has been feeding many brands, publsihers and businesses with traffic and in the long run revenue. So when Google decides to bring something like SGE that can answer search queries using AI and in the process reduce the prominence of publishers’ owned content in the search listings, it is a big thing.
So, today I will delve into what SGE really means and what kind of impact brands might see.
What is SGE?
SGE is an generative AI- powered SERP feature that Google has proposed to introduce. In this Google will use Generative AI to answer queries entered by users in the Google Search.
In the past few quarters, there has been a massive progress in generative AI. And it was only matter of time before these spilled over to marketing fields like SEO more deeply. SGE is one of these interferences of AI in marketing.
Here’s what Google cites as an example of SGE on its blog-
“Let’s take a question like “what's better for a family with kids under 3 and a dog, bryce canyon or arches.” Normally, you might break this one question down into smaller ones, sort through the vast information available, and start to piece things together yourself. With generative AI, Search can do some of that heavy lifting for you.
You’ll see an AI-powered snapshot of key information to consider, with links to dig deeper.”
Well lots of amazing and well-researched content has already written by SEOs on this topic. (I will share a list of such content at the end.)
A clear theme in these is about the impact on traffic and CTR this will have. But another thing that one needs to look at in depth is what this really means from a publisher’s point of view. On the surface it looks like another feature update by Google, but a closer inspection highlights the far-reaching, longterm disruptions in SEO traffic to publishers’ websites.
Sifting layers inside SGE
To understand this, let's dig a few layers deep into the concept of SGE.
The core scope of this feature is that Google will answer the searcher's query using Generative AI.
But to do this –
Google will need data to train its AI on. This will be the content from existing publishers. This means that –
Google is now producing content, not just listing the content produced by other publishers.
This also means that Google will use AI to generate content dynamically for any random search query. Another way to look at this is as a case of automated programmatic pages done by Google.
Basically, SGE is programmatic, automated, and dynamic content served by Google, built on top of other publishers' content.
Interestingly, this was one of the core things Google spoke about in their March update. Google called out 'Scaled content abuse' if done for hacking SERPS with spammy and low-quality content by publishers.
Google will prioritize its AI generated answer over the other publisher’s pages. This means that –
The SGE content served by Google will always rank at the top. Publishers will now have to compete with other publishers as well as Google itself.
Google will also enable AI conversations on the Google Search Pages, leading to even lesser CTRs for publishers.
This might be a good for the experience of the end users– the searchers. But, as you can see this isn’t a great deal for publishers.
Questions, questions and more questions
Many excited discussion about this are happening on social media as SEOs wonder about the what this all means for them. There many interesting questions has been raised by the SEO community.
Many are asking if AI generated answers would be as qualitatively helpful as a human written content, especially for topics that are used to make decisions by the end users.
Then there are more fundamental questions about the impact on traffic and CTRs. And more complicated ones about the idea of the validity and justification of using publishers' content to train AI.
The latter has made many big brands wonder if they should block Google's crawlers.
According to a Search Engine Land article– "As of Nov. 19, 252 websites out of a set of 3,000 popular websites had blocked Google-Extended." These brands include PCMag, Yelp, GQ, Vogue, etc.
Clearly many top brands are taking this very seriously. But many things are still open and unanswered.
However, one thing is certain: challenging and interesting times are ahead for search marketers.
What it means for the marketer?
Even though we hope that Google and search folks will find a way to use SGE without stealing the thunder from publishers' content, but from a GTM point of view, marketing leaders should start thinking ahead and prepare for the worst.
Marketing teams should start building audiences for their brand even more seriously now. As we have realised time and again that relying on the algorithms of the Googles and Metas of the world is not realible at all times.
There are few organic channels that do not depend on the distortions and the noise of the algorithms. It’s high time marketing leaders start focussing on them.
For example, email is an evergreen and autonomous channel so far. It’s a shining beacon of hope for brands in these times of change.
So, don't think twice, start your brand newsletter if you haven't already. Create a podcast, or a video stream and distribute them via emails.
Interesting news, and take on SGE. Who would have thought that indexing too much on SERPs will be a bad growth strategy one day!
I liked that I was left hopeful with possible alternatives, thanks.